Wednesday, 12 February 2014

The recent loss of a charger for my
iPhone made me think about those brands whose loyal customers take brand loyalty
to extreme. As I stood in the Apple store I marvelled at the glossy eyed stare
of my fellow shoppers. Price sensitivity was not an issue here; desire for the
brand and its products over ruled that. Apple, through its product ethos and
marketing, has created in its hardcore customer base a personal investment in
the brand. This is why people queue overnight when they release a new phone that
looks exactly like the one in their pocket and the two other doppelgangers
gathering dust in a drawer at home.

Apple is not alone in its ability to
generate brand hysteria. Sony and Microsoft have done a similar job not with a
DVD player and Excel but with the battle between the Playstation and Xbox games
consoles. There is arguably very little technically different between the two
but don’t put that on a web forum unless you want to be bombarded. The platforms
and the games on them engender fanatical loyalty.

This is not a new phenomenon. Pepsi
drinkers have been arguing with Coca Cola drinkers since forever. Brands that
become a lifestyle also generate the same level of love. From Harley Davidson to
sports brands such as Adidas, each one manages, through very careful and clever
brand management, to find a way into the hearts and lifestyles of their chosen
target markets.

The best example I can give of what
happens if you get it right is Sriracha sauce. It has a simple website, no
Facebook or Twitter profiles and does not do any advertising at all in the
US where it’s based. Yet 20 million
bottles of the hot sauce were sold in the US in
2012 alone. It, like Spanx, Rolls Royce and Krispy Crème doughnuts spend nothing
on advertising and just concentrate on the product and the retail experience and
let the brand advocates do to talking and buying. That’s careful brand
management, a science and an art form.

Thursday, 6 February 2014

Last week saw the 30th
anniversary of a television advertisement that changed a company and an
industry. It’s not often you can say that about a 30 second television ad but in
the case of Apple’s “1984” ad aired during the 1984 Super Bowl it’s true.

The ad is a take off of the classic
movie of the same name and was even directed by Ridley Scott. If you watch the
ad today (I recommend you find it on YouTube), you may think it was very much an
ad of its time. It was however the first major cinematic minimalist television
campaign. Its tagline “Why 1984 Won't Be Like
1984", positioned Apple as a true alternative in the personal computer market.
Within 3 months of the Super Bowl ad airing, $155 million worth of Macintoshes had been
sold.

The
ad is rated as one of the greatest of all time by industry types however it was
almost never shown. When the ad was sent to a research company for testing it
was panned by all the panellists who saw it. However in an extremely brave move,
the exec at the agency that came up with the ad chose not to share those results
with his bosses at the agency or Apple. That’s either ballsy or career suicide
depending on the outcome.

When
the ad was shown to Apple, Steve Jobs loved it and the rest of the Apple Board
hated it but Jobs had his way and the ad aired. The rest as they say is history.
The ad not only changed a company’s fortunes but also the advertising industry
itself. It made the advertisement almost as compulsive viewing as the programme
it disrupted. It was also one of the first ads to go viral being played on news
shows across the globe gaining further publicity and airtime. It could have all
been so different if that account manager had not had belief in his creative. He
however went on to become CEO of the agency and then launch his own. Sometimes
you have to just have the courage of your own
convictions.

About Me

My name is Tim Youngman, I am director of marketing for a regional newspaper group in the UK.
This blog contains the columns I write on media, marketing and technology for the Eastern Daily Press newspaper in the UK www.edp24.co.uk England's largest selling regional morning newspaper.
You can find our more about me here:
www.linkedin.com/in/timyoungman
and follow me on twitter @timyoungman